Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 35, 2007

The SR Merchant Navy Class, given the nickname "Spam Cans" or "Packets" by locomotive drivers after the doyen of the class, was originally a class of air-smoothed 4-6-2 (Pacific) steam locomotive designed for the Southern Railway in the United Kingdom by Oliver Bulleid. The Pacific design was chosen out of several others proposed by Bulleid. The first members of the class were constructed during the Second World War, with the final total eventually amounting to 30 locomotives. The 'Merchants' incorporated many innovations that revolutionised British steam locomotive design, such as thermic syphons. The class was named after Merchant Navy shipping lines involved in the Battle of the Atlantic, and latterly those which used Southampton docks. This was an astute publicity masterstroke for the Southern Railway. Due to problems with some of the more novel features of Bulleid's design, all members of the class were subsequently rebuilt by British Railways during the late 1950s. The 'Merchants' operated until the end of Southern steam in July 1967, and a third of the class have been preserved, and can be seen on heritage railways and the mainline throughout Britain.